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If you are new to VirtualBox, you might not be aware that you can run your guest VMs without having a console window to them on your desktop. IOW, run your guest VMs in the background and unseen. This is called headless mode. I’ll show you how to do that and a little more.

In headless mode, your guest VMs run in the background and you have the option to connect to them using the RDP protocol should you need a console to them. This is great for uncluttering your desktop particularly if you run many guest VMs and you don’t care to see their console. I have one server where I normally run at least five guest VMs at all times. Headless mode is great when you need to log into your host server remotely using ssh and start a guest VM. This can be handy if you are on the road, away from your server.

Here is an example to demonstrate some common tasks.

Log into your host server using ssh. Get a list of all VMs.

$ VBoxManage list vms

Start a guest VM named mywiki with RDP enabled and listening on port 3390. If you plan to run multiple guest VMs in headless mode with RDP enabled, you will need to choose a unique port for each to listen on. If you don’t specify a port, the default port is 3389.

$ nohup VBoxHeadless -s mywiki -v on -p 3390 &

Now if you want to check that your guest VM is among your running VMs

$ VBoxManage list runningvms

If you should need to connect to the console on that running VM named mywiki. Lets assume it’s IP address is 192.168.139.10. We are going to use rdesktop, which is a good RDP client found in most linux distros.

$ rdesktop -g 1024x768 -a 16 -5 192.168.139.10:3390 &

That should open up an nice 1024×768 window to your guest VM. If the resolution 1024×768 is too big for you, then adjust the size to fit your needs. The rdesktop settings “-a 16 -5” use a 16bit color depth and RDPv5. Those settings work well for me and look good.

To view the properties of your VM use the showvminfo option. This is handy if you want to connect your RDP client to a running VM and you don’t remember which port your VM is listening on.

$ VBoxManage showvminfo mywiki

Ok, now lets assume you have a rogue guest VM that want to shut-down and it is not responding to your request for a normal orderly shut-down. You can power it off using VBoxManage.

$ VBoxManage contolvm mywiki poweroff

One of the things I love about VirtualBox is the amount of control you have from the cmdline. Pretty much anything you can do from the management console can be done from the cmdline. That is great especially if you enjoy writing scripts and want to automate some of these VirtualBox tasks.